Rodriguez' fund tends to look for companies with strong balance sheets and better-than-average growth prospects, he said. He particularly likes office and health care real estate, because the contractual obligations that come with these sectors' long leases offer stability during a tough economy, he said.

Office: "The government's been putting a lot of money into restoring the credibility of financial institutions, so we think New York City will start to see the benefit of that over the near term," Rodriguez said.

Health care: "Health care is somewhat agnostic to the overall economy," he said. "If you still have slow growth in GDP, people still need the facilities provided by their medical doctors."